Dynamics of Carbohydrate Affinities at the Cell Surface: INTRODUCTION(4)

February 2nd, 2014

Despite the importance of follicular fluid for IVF and for in vitro sperm capacitation, the effects on carbohydrate-binding affinities of the sperm cell (and thus its affinity for the oviduct epithelial cells) have still to be elucidated.

It should be noted that sperm capacitation normally occurs in the female genital tract, but for IVF, sperm can be capacitated in chemically defined media. The addition of heparin is a species-specific adaptation for bovine sperm capacitation/IVF media.

Sulfated glycocon-jugates have been suggested to inhibit sperm binding and quickly induce sperm release from the oviductal monolayers and so may act as signals that induce sperm release and migration from the oviduct sperm reservoir. canadian family pharmacy

As described above, initial results indicate that uncapacitated sperm cells bind to oviduct epithelial cells in a carbohydrate-dependent manner and are released as capacitated sperm cells after a certain period of attachment. However, the specificity, competition, and dynamics in carbohydrate-mediated interactions between sperm cells and epithelial cells of the oviduct remain, to a large extent, terra incognita.